PSR Blog

On Tuesday (June 12th), the Obama Administration alleged that Russia is sending attack helicopters to President Bashar Assad's regime and warned that the Arab country's 15-month conflict could become even deadlier. Read more »3 comment(s)

It has been a pleasure getting to know the many chapters of PSR. Recently I have been to New York City, home of the United Nations and our current president (of PSR that is), Andy Kanter, MD. Read more »1 comment(s)

A new IPPNW study released today at the annual Nobel Peace Laureates Summit in Chicago offers compelling scientific evidence that most of the nuclear arsenals in the world —whether large or small—threaten everyone on Earth. The consequences for global agriculture of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan, for example, would be so severe and long lasting that we must now fundamentally change our thinking about nuclear weapons and redouble our efforts to eliminate them, according to the study’s author, Ira Helfand. Read more »2 comment(s)

On February 8, 2012, Congressman Edward Markey (D-MA) took to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to introduce the Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures Act (H.R. 3974). This SANE Act would cut $100 billion from the U.S. nuclear weapons budget over the next ten years by reducing the current fleet of U.S. nuclear submarines, delaying the purchase of new nuclear submarines, reducing the number of ICBMs, delaying a new bomber program, and ending the nuclear mission of air bombers. Read more »2 comment(s)

The reality is that one nuclear weapon can destroy the core of a city from blast, heat and radiation and kill hundreds of thousands of individuals. Such a detonation would create a dead zone of radiation making the area uninhabitable for decades or longer. Many more people would die in panic fleeing or from lack of any medical support. Read more »

As a Nigerian doctor active with IPPNW, I am pleased to participate for a second time in twelve months in the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) Preparatory Committee talks at the United Nations in New York. Read more »

New to the world of Washington, DC, I can see that much of the action is outside the Beltway even with the budget debate coming up in the Halls of Congress. That means YOU are the most important people. Read more »5 comment(s)

In their article, "Perceptions of Climate Change: The New Climate Dice," Hansen and his coauthors ask an important question: If we want to identify changes in the world’s climate, what do we compare current temperatures against? Read more »

These days, global warming makes spring come earlier and fall later and the period in between to be hotter; summer-like conditions are protracted. For this reason, in his recent article, "Perceptions of Climate Change: The New Climate Dice," global warming expert James Hansen focuses on changes in summer temperatures. Read more »

National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s James Hansen is one of the world’s leading experts on climate change. In 1988 he spoke before Congress and, as one of the first scientists ever to do so, brought the issue of climate change to the attention of a broad audience. Read more »

Last night President Obama’s State of the Union called for us to “double-down on a clean energy industry.” Amid several not-so-great comments about fracking and offshore oil, it was notable that President Obama failed to mention nuclear at all. Read more »

Many years from now when the history of our time is written, some may reflect that a small but meaningful step that preserved our world was taken this week. In the US, the event passed with little notice. Read more »1 comment(s)

Last week I wrote about the legislative hearing in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee of the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011. At the hearing, Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) said that he would be calling for a committee vote in the near future. Read more »2 comment(s)

We are really making progress on toxics policy. This week, the Senate Environment and Public Works committee held a legislative hearing on the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011 (S. 847), introduced last spring by Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ). Read more »2 comment(s)

The PSR community has lost a pioneer, a champion, and an outstanding colleague in the field of climate change and public health. Paul Epstein, MD MPH, co-founder and co-director of Harvard’s Center for Health and the Global Environment, died early this week. Read more »1 comment(s)

Yesterday I wrote about the speakers who addressed the Keystone protesters at the White House. Today I’d like to talk about the protesters – specifically, the young people and the growing “Occupy Wall Street” movement. Read more »1 comment(s)